UPDATE: Gov. Kate Brown has signed HB 4150 into law. See below for more about the law.

A bill that would provide guidelines for how school districts communicate with students who file sexual misconduct claims passed through the Oregon State Legislature unopposed last week, and now awaits a signature from Gov. Kate Brown.

House Bill 4150, which was sponsored by Rep. Andrea Salinas D-Portland/Lake Oswego, passed with testimonial help from a Salem family that said Salem-Keizer Public Schools should have been more open in its communication when investigating an alleged sexual misconduct incident involving their son.

“We are encouraged that both the House and the Senate supported the bill,” parent Dionne Miller said. “We’re confident that it’s really just the beginning of what inevitably will be a huge reform in how K-12 looks to handle circumstances like ours.”

Under the bill, when students make sexual misconduct claims, school districts would be required to notify the students, and their parents, when the investigation is concluded; whether a violation occurred; and what measures the district is making to prevent the misconduct from happening in the future.

Some information from an investigation, such as punishment for perpetrators, would still not be available as federal and state student privacy laws would still apply.

Salinas said a big reason why it had such overwhelming support was due to the leg work they did early on in communicating with groups, such as the Oregon School Boards Association, the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators and the Oregon Education Association.

“This was a difficult bill to navigate, both through the system and emotionally. I think a lot of my staff and everybody who worked on it felt it was a very personal bill, so I’m thrilled because all of that hard work paid off,” Salinas said. “I think the initial reaction from school districts was, ‘We already have this, we’re already doing this.’ Yeah, they have a lot of rules in place, but it’s not working. So that was the initial big hurdle — we still have problems, so let’s get in there and start to address them.”

The Salem-Keizer district, which maintains it quickly investigated the Miller case and applied “appropriate disciplinary consequences.”

“We’ll continue to work with our district attorney and ensure our employees follow the law as it’s written,” district spokeswoman Lillian Govus said.

Salinas and the Miller family have viewed this bill as a first step in reforming how public schools handle claims of sexual misconduct.

While she is pleased with the bill’s passing, Salinas said there is still work to do, and she’s encouraged that people from all the groups involved are willing to come to the table and discuss solutions.

“While it’s not the monumental bill that we would have liked, it’s a very good first step,” Salinas said. “I know that the department of education will be asking for more compliance officers. I think they need more technical assistance, so that when investigations are dealt with, that they have resources that have gone through this more frequently.”

The Miller family said they are happy that families who go through a situation like this in the future will have a better experience maneuvering through the process than they did.

“It’s a little bittersweet that the changes won’t impact our situation and how it was handled,” Dionne Miller said. “But we know that the kids and families who have to go through similar circumstances in the future will benefit.”